A 67 year old retired school teacher with severe pains of right sided trigeminal neuralgia aggravated with slightest movement.

This is the case of Mrs. F. K (Patient Ref. No. S-5905) a 67 years old female who had been suffering from trigeminal neuralgia since 4 years. Her complaints began as pain in the right side of the face that would start above the lips. It would ascend to the cheeks, cheekbone and up to the forehead on the right side of the face. The pain would be very intense and of shooting type as if there was some electric current passing through that part. She would get these episodes of pain daily for at least one or two times for the last 4 years. The pain would last about 15 seconds and she was unable to perform any work during this time. Eating, sleeping, washing the face, brushing the teeth would worsen the pain. The pain would come up at almost anytime and would be worse on exposure to cold and at night. Blowing the nose was painful and any kind of jerky movement would trigger the pain.

She also had complaints of gastritis since few months wherein she would get retrosternal burning She was a known case of hypertension since last 10 years and was under treatment for the same.

Her appetite and thirst were normal. She disliked eating fish. She would be more comfortable in warm weather. She would always take covering during sleep. Bowels would be normal except that she would occasionally be constipated.

She was a retired school teacher by profession and she would spend her time in stitching, knitting and reading besides doing her household chores. She was a cheerful person and denied having any kind of stress in her life. She preferred to speak less, only when required. She was a confident lady who was prepared to face any stressful situation. She would get angry at trifles, especially when she was disturbed while doing her work. She would often scold people and abuse them when angry. She was afraid of heights (mountains) and of being in elevators.

There was no history of any significant illness in the past. In her family, her father had hypertension and ischemic heart disease.

She had undergone Radiofrequency retrogasserian trigeminal rhizotomy right V3 during the initial stages of her illness and the condition was under control for some time. But then she started developing pain in V2. Due to her age and ischemic heart disease, the operation could not be repeated and so she was put on the conventional medicines for the control of the pain. But within few days of starting the treatment, she developed severe side-effects due to those medicines and she had to discontinue the same. She even had to be admitted to the hospital for the control of the seizures that she developed as a side-effect of those medicines.

She was started on homeopathic treatment and within the first 3 months of treatment she was significantly better. There was marked improvement in the severity and frequency of TN attacks. After about a year of homeopathic treatment she was almost 90% better than before and she was able to lead a normal life. This case illustrates that how homeopathy can help the patient even in those cases where the conventional medicines don't suit the patient and where surgery provides temporary relief.